


Fiddle

by vanillafluffy



Category: Justified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-11 11:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillafluffy/pseuds/vanillafluffy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boyd's thoughts after the events of "Slaughterhouse". He's not dumb, you know he's going to figure out what's really going on....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fiddle

Boyd's been quietly celebrating his release from incarceration by misguided law enforcement personnel. He's appropriated a bottle from behind the bar, and the level of its contents has gone down appreciably. The whiskey in his glass has blurred his thoughts, and his attempts to sort out recent events trouble him. 

Foolish of them to think he'd shot that state trooper. He still has the goose-egg from being knocked out by the car bomb. Arlo owning up to that and Devil's murder, though...now that came as a pleasant surprise. He and Arlo have gotten close since poor Helen's death; having a common enemy will do that, although sometimes he's hard pressed to say whether Dickie Bennett or Raylan has been the bigger enemy.

Dickie, he reckons. Dickie's none too bright, and it's purely hell trying to predict what a stupid man will do next. Raylan, on the other hand, has a brain and uses it, which at least makes him a worthy adversary.

Not unlike Limehouse. Boyd frowns and takes another sip of the amber fluid. He's still disturbed by the involvement of the man from Noble's Holler.

The jukebox starts the notes of a Charlie Daniels song he's known for as long as he can remember. "...I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cause I think I'm better than you—" 

Arlo's not too tightly wrapped these days, but he's been on the so-called wrong side of the law since before Boyd was born. No way he’d ever snitch on purpose. Shooting his mouth off about a killing? Hard to see it...not impossible, but none too likely.

Got to get to the root of it, Boyd thinks as fire flies from the devil’s bow. Because if Arlo didn't spill the beans about the killing...that just leaves one other person who was here that night. It couldn't be Johnny, he'd been the one to reveal Devil's treachery to begin with.

How better to gain his trust? Reveal the snake in the grass and present himself as loyal, all the while, planning...what? To frame him on a murder charge? So that he can do what, take over? Why? Hasn't Boyd already given Johnny back his bar, made him his trusted lieutenant? Isn't that enough?

Apparently not. Apparently Johnny thinks he deserves everything. Just like Johnny in the song, he wants that the golden fiddle beyond all good sense, and thinks his soul is a modest price to pay. Spurious reasoning at best; he'll never hold power without loyal people around him. He's got no people, and what’s worse, he's proved he’s capable of selling out his own kin. 

Boyd values what family he has left, even if it’s just his sorry cousin Johnny. This is going to require some serious contemplation. Boyd would rather not sentence him to Devil's fate, but he’s not about to give up the golden fiddle.

He’s already surrendered his soul for it.

 

***


End file.
